Mysterious shadows spotted on Saturn's rings by Hubble telescope ...

What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend?

We have a favorable Moon that doesn’t rise until midnight and weather that mostly seems to be cooperating. Clouds have been obscuring much of our night sky this week but the forecast is for scattered clouds on both Friday and Saturday nights.

We are rapidly approaching Fall and many of our favorite targets are rotating into view. Among our favorite fall targets are:

·       The Andromeda Galaxy – the closest full sized galaxy to the Milky Way at only 2.5 million light years. It is also the only object outside our galaxy thet is visible to the naked eye.

·       M15, the Pegasus Globular Cluster is a bright ball of 100,000 stars.

·       The Double Cluster is in the Perseus Constellation is two dense open clusters visible in the same field of view.

·       The beautiful star Capella is rising in the East around 9:30 PM. It is the third brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere, and it is about 43 light years away.

·       The Pleiades Star Cluster rises at 10:30 but will likely not be visible until after we close.

The Summer Stars are moving towards the west but are still visible now. This may be a good weekend to see the Milky Way. The amazing nebulae in the bright band of our galaxy will still be visible. We also love to highlight the contrast of two stars in the Scorpio Constellation. Antares is the star at the heart of the scorpion and is a cool red super-giant star. It is about 500 times the diameter of our Sun and is about 6,0000° F. Shaula is a bright blue star that is the “stinger” at the end of the scorpion’s tail. Its temperature is almost 38,000° F and is about 17 times the Sun’s diameter.

The planet outlook is getting better with Saturn joining Venus in our sky after around 10 PM. Saturn goes through a 30 year cycle where our view of its rings change. They were virtually invisible last November when they were edge-on. But they are now at more of an angle and you can actually see the gap between the rings and the planet. We have a new 14” Schmidt-Cassagrain telescope that we will be using for the first time this weekend. It should give a great view of Saturn and some of its moons. The picture of Saturn today is from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Have you ever visited us for one of our solar viewings? The cooler weather might make it a good weekend to visit our “Solar Saturday” at the Sherwood Demonstration Garden this Saturday morning from 10 until noon. We tend to think of the Sun as a featureless yellow ball. The reality is that it is amazingly complex and you can see some of those features in our specialized solar scopes. Join us to learn more about “our favorite star.”

The weather is still a bit volatile so be sure to check our calendar or here after 3 PM on the day you plan to visit to make sure we will be open. Come prepared to pay the $2 for parking.

 

 

 

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